CSAT is the quick pulse check on a specific interaction or product. Here is how it is calculated, when to use it, and how it differs from NPS.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) measures how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, product, or service, usually on a 1 to 5 scale, expressed as the percentage who responded favorably.
CSAT asks a direct question right after an experience: how satisfied were you. You take the share of respondents who chose the top one or two ratings (for example, 4 and 5 on a 5-point scale) as your CSAT percentage. Unlike NPS, which gauges long-term loyalty, CSAT is transactional and best for measuring a specific touchpoint such as a support ticket or onboarding step.
After 300 support tickets, you survey and get 180 responses, of which 153 rate 4 or 5. CSAT = (153 / 180) x 100 = 85 percent. That tells you support is doing well; it does not tell you whether those customers will renew.
CSAT pinpoints where a specific experience is strong or weak, which makes it actionable for operations: a low CSAT on onboarding tells you exactly where to fix the journey. Measured at the right touchpoints, it catches problems before they show up in churn. AI makes it easy to theme the open-text feedback behind the scores.